MBCH pleads for house parents

BRIDGETON – In the first quarter of 2018, a dozen families have been reunified that would not have had the chance if not through the work of the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home.

In addition to those reunifications, trustees at the April 24 board meeting here heard the MBCH’s Children and Family Ministries (CFM) facilitated six guardianships and 12 adoptions.

Russell Martin, president of the MBCH begged for prayers that God would call 10-15 couples to serve as house parents at group foster homes. The work is 24 hours a day for seven days, then seven days off with salary and benefits.

“This is a great missions opportunity,” Martin said, “especially for a retired couple. Kids are literally on the street because we have not staff to care for them. God commanded us to take care of orphans. Far too many of us have acquiesced that responsibility to the state. It may not be that we don’t care; but rather it may be that we don’t know what to do or some may not even be aware the problem exists (or we don’t want to admit the problem exists).”

Trustees heard reports detailing that:

• More than 100 foster kids will get the opportunity to experience camp – most for the first time – when the MBCH CFM hosts its summer camp at Baptist Hill in Mount Vernon. MBCH is still looking for volunteers to help make the camp happen.

• Certain MBCH staffers will fly to the Ukraine in August for a training with a local agency with a similar mission, discussing what the Bible says about orphan care, developing healthy and biblical relationships between husbands and wives, discipline and other behavioral issues, and equipping parents of special needs children.

• The MBCH’s auditing firm, Anders, issued a “clean” unmodified opinion off the ministry’s accounting for the year.

Trustees also met in executive session to discuss the MBC’s request to align MBCH’s governing documents to reflect recent changes to the MBC’s own documents.

Ethics

MBC Executive Director John Yeats: “We must remain vigilant until every child is safe in his/her mother’s womb. We must also be much more caring for every mother whose life circumstances are so tragic that she would contemplate a medical procedure or abortifacient to end her child’s life.”

Missouri

Several Christian ministries – including Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s “For the Church” (FTC) – will offer events on topics ranging from growing healthy churches to current issues in the Southern Baptist Convention for messengers and others attending the SBC’s June 11-12 annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala.